The Portland daily press., 1887-07-11
HERMANN's TRICKS.
Explanation of Some Remarkable
but Simple Deceptlons.
New York SUM-

New York SUM-
Hermann is slight-of-hand performer
whose tricks, on and off the stage, are often
described in print Those accounts usually
exaggerate and mystiiy. Let us take a clear
view of some of his doings. As he walked
toward the foot-lights he removed his gloves,
rolled them into little ball. pretended to
put them into his left hand, but kept them
in the hollow palm of his right, and then
waved his hands in the air. keeping the
back Of his right hand toward the spectators.
He then picked up pack of cards from the
table and shuffied them, arranging the nine
Of clubs, ten of diamonds and ace of hearts in
the middle of the pack, so that he would
know their exact position and could keep the
third finger of his right hand beneath them.
he walked down ft0m the stage and pre-
scented the pack. spread out back upward. to
ode OF the audience, requesting the gentle
man to select a card. As the stranger
reached for the card, Hermann moved the
nine OF clubs toward him with his finger
and the stranger took it, Another person
was made to draw the 10 of diamonds, and
another the ace of hearts, in the same way.
| They looked at their cards and put them
back into the pack. which was then shuffied.
| The Snowman returned to the stage and ask
the three persons to name their cards,
| They did so, and young woman dressed
as page, then brought from behind the
| scenes sword. The blade of the sword
had been passed through three similar cards,
| which were concealed behind the hilt guard.
| A fine elastic cord was attached to the point
| of the sword stretched and fastened to
the hilt. The three cards were fastened to
the elastic The young woman took the
| pack and tossed it toward Hermann. who
held the sword in his hand. As She did SO
he thrust the sword toward the flying pack
and released the elastic from the hilt The
nine of clubs, ten of diamonds and ace of
hearts at once appeared near the point of
flying.
Next, Hermann borrowed handkerchief
| from lady and gave it to young man to
hold between his hands. He carried wand
under his arm. Taking the wand out with
his right hand, he also took from a little
pocket under his arm a small package of
| pieces of linen, which he concealed in the
palm of his right hand. He then said the
young man in the audience was not holding
the handkerchief right and took it from him
to show him how. He rubbed the handker-
chlef between his hands, palmed it, and gave
back the bits Of cloth in its stead The
young man did not observe the change
Again Hermann appeared dissatisfied, and
chief up by corner. The dupe opened his
hands and the bits fell out. He picked them
up and handed them to Hermann, who put
them between his'own hands, palmed them,
and worked toward the ends of his fingers a
long strip of cloth which he had concealed in
his palm. Then he shook out the strip and
said IT was composed of the pieces This he
rolled up and palmed, and turning his back
TO the audience to go back upon the stage he
put all the bits OF cloth away under his coat
ana showed his hands to be empty. Then he
picked up lemon from which the pulp had
been removed and inside of which a hand
kerchiet had been placed. He cut the lem
on and drew out, the handkerchief. The
spectators thought twas the one he had Dor
rowed, and they applauded. He put the
handkerchief on plate and poured some al
cohol upon it. The pretty young woman set
fire to the alcohol with candle. Then he
extlngulshed the flame with sheet of paper,
In which be wrapped the embers. He went
to table, rolled the package with his hand
into little well, and took up another paper
containing an unscorched piece of CLOTH
He walked down toward the audience, pre-
tended to toss the piece Of. cloth to lady
with his left and palmed it with his right
hand, which he dropped to his waist
| While the spectators were looking at his left
hand he concealed the piece of cloth in a
pocket just inside the edge of his coat He
took from the pocket there the original Dor
rowed handkerchief, concealing it in his
palm. Placing his hand at a gentleman's
ear, he dropped the handkerchief to the ends
OF his fingers, pretending to take it out of the
gentleman's ear, and handed it to the lady,
The performer borrowed tall hat, turned
his back to the audience, put handkerchief
containing three eggs into the hat as he
turned to the stage, faced about and took
first the handkerchief and the eggs from the
hat The pretty young woman with a short
wand in her hand, went down the aisle and
borrowed three rings. Returning to the
stage she slipped three other rings upon the
wand ana handed 1t to the Snowman. keep
ing the three borrowed rings concealed in
her hands: She then went behind the scenes,
and tied the three rings to ribbons hanging
from the necks of three white doves and put
the doves into the deep cover of a stew pan
The cover had false bottom held in place
by spring. While she was doing this Her
mann let the three bogus rings slide from the
wand into stew pan, broke the eggs and
dropped them in, poured in some alcohol and
SET hre to It.: The pretty young woman
brought out the cover and Hermann placed
Il on the pan. He then released the false
| bottom, lifted the cover, and showed the
three doves sitting on the pan with the Dor
rowed rings tied to their necks. He placed
o onS q sra sg b doyes On the parrel OF pistol
not to move. He put the dove on a table,
covered 1t with handkerchief, dropped the
Dlrd through a little trap, gathered up the
handkerchief as though the dove were inside.
| weighing his finger in the handkerchief to
stimulate the fiuttering Of the bird, and then
smashed the handkerchief between his hands
very violently. Ladies in the audience said.
| "Oh!' The Snowman shook the handker
chief out by the corners and showed that it
i was empty.
| Hermann next got programme rolled it
i up into the form of candy horn placing in
It secretly compressed packet of cut paper
flowers that he obtained from the pocket I'M
der his left arm. Putting his right hand in
to the horn, ostensibly to shape it better, he
removed the pressure from the packet and
| the paper flowers swell6d and filled the
horn. He shook them out upon the table,
| put his hand upon them to arrange them and
/ picked up another packet, which he intro
duced into the horn while again adjusting
its shape. He repeated this several times,
until about bushel of flowers had been
i shaken out.
| He then borrowed hat, took a rabbit from
under his coat as he walked away, and put it
the hat by the ears. While the spectators
were examining that rabbit he held
the hat close to his breast with his right
hand and put into it another rabbit with his
left. He took that rabbit out. Then he
placed both rabbits on the table, one hiding
| the other from the spectators, dropped the
latter rabbit through a trap, rubbed the re-
naming one, and said he had rolled two rab-
DTS into one. A confederate in the audi
ence had third rabbit concealed in his in
side coat pocket. Hermann came down,
struggled with the man, and pulled the rab-
bit out Of his pocket. Hermann returned to
the stage, tossed the rabbit in the air, placed
| 1t on shelf behind the table when it came
down, made a tossing movement again very
| quickly, fired pistol with his left hand, and
looked up as though he had thrown the rab-
bit into the flies. Then the curtain came
| down for an intermisson; and it had all
Deen easy enough to see through il you knew
how.